Steve Roach — Journey of One
The recordings here are taken from a single nights concert that took place in August 1996 in Sacramento, Californian. The recording & mastering of both disc is crystal clear & pristine, so really you wouldn’t know they were live recordings. Each disc is broken up into seven tracks, but really these are just handy index points as reality each disc offers up one long morphing & shifting track.
Each discs fifty minute track finds Roach taking you on a rich, heady & varied tribal ambient trip. The tracks move from mysterious, goldern & timeless ambient drifts ‘n’ ebbs, through to didgeridoo lined tribal rhythmic build-ups, onto haunting drone currents that are lined with subtle bell, gong & ethnic voice chants, through to mid-paced ritual rhythmic work-outs that shimmer & snake with atmospheric electronics & lush yet mystical synth textures, onto tabla & ethic percussion trance dwells, into bobbing ‘n’ bouncing beat lined electroinca/ ambient dwells, and beyond. Each set finds Roach effortlessly switching & drifting from one pace & sonic structure to the next as he creates a rich & heady tribal ambient stew, yet neither set ever becomes clichéd or tried as Roach skilful keeps alive mystery, surprise & timeless wonder with his slowly twisting & turing tribal ambient sonic explorations.
So all told there’s two very rewarding & varied slices of creative tribal ambience on offer here- lets hope there’s some more recordings of this caliber in the Roach archive because this really is spell-binding stuff.